1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a pet waste disposal system and, more particularly, to an automated pet training pad specifically adapted for canines wherein the automated training pad is capable of automatically disposing pet waste after the pet has used the pad.
2. Description of the Related Art
An important aspect of pet ownership is ensuring that young pets get proper training, especially if they are kept within the owner's home. A particular problem associated with house pets, such as cats and dogs, is teaching the animals the proper place for urination and defecation. Traditionally, owners were faced with seemingly endless cleaning after their pets arbitrarily chose the place to egest.
A number of “self cleaning” cat litter boxes have recently become available that provide for a means of scooping litter clumps from a litter receptacle in a relatively automatic fashion. The more highly automated versions of such devices include motorized scooping that is actuated by a sensor that detects when a cat has entered and left the litter box. The proliferation of such devices currently indicate a consumer need and demand for an easier manner of performing the function of cleaning the litter box. However, to date no such ‘automated’ collection system has been designed, developed or adapted to accommodate the needs of canines.
Generally, while cats are generally trained maternally in the habit of using a litter box, dog owners usually must engage is ‘housebreaking’, or developing the habit of urinating and defecating only in certain locations, usually outdoors.
Even after trained, dogs habitually excrete droppings while being walked, requiring the owner to retrieve and dispose of pet wastes when and where the animal has gone. This distasteful routine is familiar to all responsible dog owners and many bystanders. Because of the distastefulness of this routine, many less responsible dog owners leave the waste where it lies. This has led to the promulgation of ‘leash laws’, in which dog owners are required to retrieve the pet wastes and discharge them appropriately.
Practitioners in the art respond to the problem by proposing means designed to minimize the unpleasantness of the gathering and disposal of such animal waste. Generally speaking, these solutions have developed as improvements around a device term a “pooper-scooper”, which is a generic term used to denominate a mechanical apparatus, usually with a long handle, and a cup, bag or other collection end at a distal end. A pooper-scooper is used for retrieving dog wastes without soiling the owners' hands.
In the past few decades, several solutions have become available to pet owners to assist them in training their pets to learn a proper place to egest. The patent to Spellman (U.S. Pat. No. 3,626,899) teaches a training pad comprising an absorbent material lined on one side thereof with fluid impervious material that is further impregnated with an odor imparting substance which attracts young dogs to the pads for the purpose of urination and defecation. The preferred embodiment recites a multi-layer cellulosic absorbent material capable of absorbing aqueous fluids.
In addition to traditional pet training pads, there have been several inventions that attempted to mechanize or automate the process of pet waste disposal. Of considerable relevance is the animal waste disposal system disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,202,595 to Atrcravi, which comprises a drive mechanism that collects waste in a scoop and moves it to a container attached to a removable drawer having two handles so that it can be easily discarded. The device taught in U.S. Pat. No. 6,205,954 to Bogaerts comprises a comb mounted to a movable carriage that pushes waste to a receiving container having a cover lid. The waste container can also be taken off for emptying. The self-cleaning litter box taught in U.S. Application No. 2003/0217700 to Northrop et al. comprises rake tines that push waste clumps upward along an inclined ramp to a waste box having an open lid to receive the clumps. The waste box is fitted with a removable tray and a disposable liner so that the container can be emptied easily.
Although conventional training pads are a welcome solution to everyday problems that owners face while training a young pet, they are nonetheless associated with many drawbacks. The owner still must frequently attend to the training pad to ensure that it is clean. It is important to routinely clean training pads so that the pets do not distribute waste throughout the dwelling. Furthermore, frequent cleaning and replacing of pet training pads is necessary to stop offensive odors from spreading. However, cleaning conventional pet training pads can be a messy affair. Not only are conventional pet training pads inefficient at curbing offensive odors, but they also may be prone to leaking liquid wastes.
Rather than provide continuous incremental improvement in the manual collection and retrieval of outdoor and remotely deposited animal wastes, the present invention takes a completely unique approach in providing for the automatic retrieval, collection, neutralizing and disposal of canine urine and feces with an improved automated pet training and waste collection device that is simple to use, inexpensive to own, and efficient in discarding pet waste and eliminating odor.
Consequently, a need has been long felt for providing an improved automated pet training pad that is simple to use, inexpensive to own, and efficient in discarding pet waste and eliminating odor.